okay statement of compliance with the Sunshine Law this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act an adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required by law specifically the revised annual notice was emailed to the West essics Tribune and the Star Ledger on January 2nd 2024 the agenda and resolutions for the meeting are available on www. Livingston nj.org certain portions of this meeting may be closed to the public for the purpose of personnel Andor other matters as outlined in the Sunshine Law decisions made Andor discussed in closed session will be made known to the public at a later time notice to members of the governing body and Township staff any use of electronic devices during this meeting shall be used am I up this is long it's too [Laughter] long shall be used solely for the purposes of Township business and any Communications are subject to the open public records act to the extent possible this evening's Township of Livingston council meeting will be live streamed via Facebook at www.fb.com back/ Livingston Township NJ questions or comments will also be accepted by emailing live comments Livingston nj.org by 4 pm on the day of the meeting each speaker should follow the rules of order and Livingston code section 2-15 all right uh we'll stand for a oh roll call sorry council member bani here via present C here Deputy Mayor Minard here mayor Anthony here are we going to stand for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance States indivisible jusice for all okay um I had a chance to correspond with uh Eileen Fishman uh she will not be here tonight for the yex county update uh we have no proclamations or presentations tonight so we'll go to the approval of the minutes motion to approve the minutes of the February 26 2024 regular and Conference uh minutes as well as the February 26 2024 close session minutes second second thank you all in favor I I okay all right motion to open the meeting for public comment on agenda items only second any posos okay anything Justin um hi Mr Mayor Justin Alper 56 Amhurst Place uh with respect to ordinance 1024 and 1124 um I believe there are two recusals up here correct 10 to yes all right so to the three non- recused members um you know there's nothing wrong with a conflict of interest you recuse yourself it happens in the ordinary course but when a conflict happens there's reason to do a deeper due diligence and now there it's just three of you up here including one new member you ought to retain independent Council th this has been a uh disaster of a policy from the word go uh the we controlled two board seats on the YMCA and they privately gave the way the property to a Maryland LLC that property would be invaluable to the township you could build up commercial property there they give kids from the high school a place to go to lunch we were just talking next door about improving our business districts we have so many things on the oval the it would be a wonderful commercial piece of property instead we're selling off the uh the skate park and uh I I I you didn't include Exhibit C in the pack did they update their numbers because when they the original Exhibit C was basically fraudulent financials can we put that up do we have the ability to do that the we really need to take a very close look at what we're doing there and just you know doesn't make sense to give it away to another adult care facility we know how the private Equity is bleeding this community drive through adult care facilities why put up another one there right in the heart of town why not use the property for something that uh would be actually benefit us would very much like to see the people who are coming in from Bright View actually ask for it and engage in a public conversation councilman Vieira would love to have your wife there to understand what happened in the process when this went out would love to have Rudy Fernandez back here explaining their thought process as well it doesn't even make sense for us to continue with this YMCA property we might as well roll it into the Parks and Recreation Department why pay two fees for the pools including the ones we're building why not build them together as part of indoor and outdoor facilities there's a smarter approach here selling off the land and the skate park to a Maryland llz in perpetuity does not make sense fraudulent financials what's the point of asking for financials if you're not going to dig deep on them uh councilman bani you're new to this take a Very Fresh Approach please there are two recusals there has to be a Fresh Approach dig deep on the numbers very highly suggest that you get independent Council on this for the three of you thank you for your consideration thank you Justin any other public comment on consent agenda agenda on uh on agenda items only I'll make a motion to close public comment second any post no all right all in favor all in favor I next we have the final hearing on uh second reading of ordinances Caroline ordinance 52024 amending chapter 274 streets and sidewalks uh mayor may I make a motion to continue to table this ordinance uh 05-22 24 certainly um you need a second second any mayy you need a roll call on this is to table it and to continue the and the public hearing will be when Madam clerk March 25th okay March 25th will be the public hearing on this ordinance if if the motion passes okay I'll need a roll call you just said yes mayor okay council member bani yes Vieira yes Klein yes Deputy Mayor mhart yes mayor Anthony yes so that'll be on the 25th March 25th great thank you all right next ordinance ordinance 82024 amending and supplementing chapter 17091 fences may need a motion to open the public hearing Mo motion to open public comments for public hearing thank you second all in favor yes yes yes anyone here for that ordinance motion to close public hearing second second all right any opposed all in favor I motion to move motion to move ordinance 082 20-24 second any discussion from Council no please council member bubani yes Viera yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor mhart yes mayor Anthony yes all right Council so uh the mayor and Deputy Mayor recuse themselves uh from this um this ordinance Madam clerk could you please read ordinance 10- 2024 by title yes ordinance 10-2020 authorizing the purchase and sale agreement with bright few is there a motion to introduce this ordinance and set a public hearing date I'll make that motion is there a second second is there any discussion if not a roll call council member BB Tani uh I have a couple of points for discussion is that what we do I'm sorry when we ask for discussion yeah okay yes okay so I think a first question uh maybe goes to to Barry I think is are these two related if you can help us understand 10 and 11 they're related obviously to the same project they're separate not necessarily related in terms of interrelated the ordinances the first ordinance uh relates to which we've discussed before uh the sale of a strip of land at the north end of town hall uh to provide sufficient parking on site which the D enhanced regulations uh compressed the site next door the second ordinance is the financial agreement under the long-term tax exemption statute stute so while they both relate to the same project uh they are not related necessarily to each other thank you B and and I I did uh engage with the with the Bright View to understand this better uh I found them to be uh very Cooperative understanding kind of Partners but also do have some questions as a followup right so one is uh 10 and 11 are they link together meaning if one one has to pass for the other how are we making sure on this uh well for the project to proceed they both need to pass they're not Linked In in the sense of the timing of them but but it's important I think this has been going on for quite a bit so uh both of these are are critical to allow that project to go forward which of course then in turn allows the new YMCA project to move forward um and I and I would note as well um the uh which I did in the memo but for the benefit of the uh the public as well on the financial agreement um thanks to uh our new council member uh Bon 's uh involvement in that we were able to negotiate uh with the developer and actually enhance some of the terms uh to the benefit of the town so thank you for that thank you very um and and one other thing um in terms of the um uh the the sale of the property uh that's separate uh meaning the for the skateboard park yeah that's that's the first ordinance um and as we discussed and is is contained in both the redeveloper agreement and the ordinance authorizes the purchase sale agreement uh that would not occur until such time as they are far enough in the process that they're going to go demolish that which then provides us with ample time uh probably two years to go identify the site do whatever we need to do to construct the replacement and again the proceeds of sale will cover the cost of that thank you and I said final but one promise one more final um about the credits for um fair share housing um this is a proposal for an assisted living correct uh if we can explore that see what is that we bringing back to the community because this replaces the apartment buildings basically right get the credit as we have for the recent the most recent one is sunrise uh The Way co and fair share then and affordable housing there are certain Medicare eligible Medicaid eligible uh units and assistant if they're whatever number of those are with that's how the credits are done it's not like conventional apartments right yeah yeah that's that's a key benefit I would be looking for as we continue to have these conversations so thank you B thank you mayor I have a comment as well sorry mayor's recused oh mayor okay chair I have a comment as well attorney councilman coun I I want to um thank uh councilman bhani who's just here you know he still has the brand new councilman smell on him and um uh has made an invaluable um he has an in he has an invaluable uh contribution in this project you made it a better um agreement for the town and uh we really have um already benefited from the skill and knowledge that you bring to your position so thank you for that thank you councilman Jared I was going to hold my comments but since uh others have made comments I'm going to make a comment but I'm probably going to make the same comment um if this does pass um you know what Livingston had two properties that have not paid taxes for many many many many many years you had the YMCA and you also had the church across the street that did not pay taxes and at one point the YMCA which is a part of our community there's there's no doubt about that needed a larger space and all of a sudden the church across the street which had not been paying taxes um was for sale and the I had decided to to go and uh purchase that but of course their purchase is contingent upon the sale of their property and with that said you know if this sale doesn't go through there has been talk about the why leaving Livingston and we just can't have that but what else is there is we're putting one property the old YMCA back on the tax roles prod yes it definitely will be re Revenue producing however why don't you look at it this way also should this not pass okay the Y has already indicated that they need a larger building they want to move out of town if that's that if that's the case okay so at that point you have the old YMCA and then you have the church that now go back on the market for a private developer to actually come in and and put buildings and housing on it and you know what we're tired of it okay we cannot allow that to happen so you know that's where going that's where my vote is going to be is uh just um just to make sure that these two properties are are safe and sound from Builders thank you uh chair any further comment from councel I would just say I I didn't want to get into it either but I uh I completely Echo uh councilman Beer's comments this is um a very wise decision uh by the council to move forward in my opinion I think that's where the credit comes in right which is which is key to keep that in mind uh what other benefits that we are Beyond fiscal benefits uh Beyond benefits of taxing that we are bringing for the township I think that's where this this whole project is going to be should be looked at from a more holistic perspective Madam cler please call the RO council member bubani yes Vieira yes kleene yes um and the hearing will be March 25th 2024 Madam cler could you please read ordinance 1 1-20 24 by title ordinance 11224 authorizing Financial agreement and ltte application is there a motion to introduce and set a public hearing I'll make it I'll second is there any discussion I think I asked my questions and 11 as well in the previous one so I'm good Madam clerk please call the rooll council member bani yes Viara yes Klein yes the public hearing date March March 25th thank you m thank you I think that brings us to the consent agenda for Resolutions all matters listed with an asct are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the council and will be approved by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the governing body so requests in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda as part of the general orders uh is there anyone who wants to pull any of the resolutions separ yeah we are pulling 24107 uh and I think that's the only one we're pulling pulling we're pulling it from the agenda it's not V on yeah not just from consent right so Madam cler please read the remaining please read the resolutions record please thank you uh resolution 24-16 approving the bid budget 202 4 resolution 24-18 appointment of Anar Rani resolution 24-19 appointment of chitra Rani resolution 24- 1110 appointment of chanal Kala resolution 24-11 appointment of Amanda Jones resolution 24-12 authorizing the award of a contract to shoger Property Services Inc resolution 24113 authorizing the award of a contract to M McDonald LLC resolution 24-14 authorizing the award of a contract to scar scafar Contracting Wells 10 and 12 resolution 24-15 authorizing the award of a contract to M2 Associates resolution 24-16 authorizing the award of a contract to stal Construction LLC resolution 24-17 awarding a contract as an extraordinary unspecifiable service for pre-loss disaster planning and control Assessment Services to service master by Timeless resolution 24-18 authorizing an emergency contract with is ACC Court resolution 24-19 apptive uh approving Collective negotiations agreement with International Brotherhood of teamsters chauffeur warehousemen and helpers of America local number 469 motion to approve uh everything as read on the consent agenda second um any discussion there's no I would just say generally this is sorry well Madam cler I mean I think did we're supposed to pull anything we wanted discuss separately but but I mean you have comment are you sure but councilman if you want to comment I was just going to say several of these uh resolutions um are uh appointments of our great volunteers to our to our committees and uh I just you know want to say thanks to Amanda and Chanel and anurag and chetra from you know from on behalf of the whole Council um we really uh appreciate when our volunteers step up and um thanks to you folks for putting your names forward um we appreciate it all in favor uh roll call council member bubani yes via yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor Reinhard yes mayor Anthony yes all right we're up to the public portion motion to open the uh meeting to public portion second any opposed all in favor all right hi Mr Mayor Justin aler 56 am Hur just to follow up on the points that we were T discussing before in 1024 and 1124 um taxes are not the sole value to the community you also have to look at cash flows what cash flows will they be drawing out of the community the other thing that you have to look at is uh jobs to the community the place next door doesn't actually provide any jobs to the community it's people who get on and off the bus from the inner city and come here and work there um we can do a better job than that secondly um the big news in the state today was the Democrats and Trenton gutting the open public records act and the public and the Press fairly universally came out against it but the Democrats passed it anyway uh other politicians across the state spoke up uh not notably mayor Philip spoke up uh as well as uh um mayor Baraka and other official our own uh um congresswoman spoke up against this uh it's not too late this Council can speak up for Oprah and for good open governance and it would mean a lot if it came from Livingston thank you very much Mr Mayor thank you Jus anyone else Tim uh Tim Foley 16 man Pleasant Parkway um my in my mother-in-law is having a lot of problems with her two neighbors and my wife has emailed the zoning and multiple other uh people inside town is that the best way to really to get some things resolved and it's all minor stuff major to her but minor into any extent but uh I believe Russ I think you talked to my mother-in-law Nancy Jen to the property maintenance on the okay the garbage stuff the garbage stuff I mean there's a big 20 gallon dumpster right on the property that that looks ugly she looking at her backyard that's one incident and then the synagogue behind her um taking that brush putting up a fence with no permits um and again there was an agreement before the synagogue was even built on Mount Pleasant Avenue because their the rear yard abut them that there's supposed to be some sort of barrier it could be fence it could be brush and it was all brush he couldn't even see the parking lot and they took it all down to try to clean it up repave it because they bought the some of the piece of property they repaved it for their parking lot and they didn't put it the proper fence back up or any type of uh barrier that there was an agreement so I'm just wondering who else can I she didn't mention the synagogue well right now she's complaining about that but yeah we're still kind of talking to the synagogue I'm hoping we can work this out um again they didn't pull any permits for the fencing that they put up so but we want the fence up properly not the way they put it up some of it's on her property also so again talking to the synagogue you got to go through some channels and it's been an issue this is this happened last spring so it's almost a year so and then we kind of we're going through the talks and then the unfortunate situation October 7th happened so we kind of let it go because we didn't want to bring anything you know bring anything up because that was a major major deal to the Jewish Community um that's it I'm just so so the fence is actually on your their fence is on your mom your mother-in-law's property yes okay we should definitely look into that so we should get down do we know the it goes half the property then comes into their their garage 100% do we do we do we have um Tim's mother-in-law's address to go send somebody out there South Mitchell South Mitchell okay great so we should definitely s we should send somebody out there the house the house with the little castles in front of it yeah okay I I don't know I I don't know but it was great we should definitely send somebody out there all right appreciate than than you Tim anyone else for a comment motion no motion to close public portion of the meeting second okay all in favor I any opposed no all right we're up to reports of Township officials and council members um Ann anything I do actually um have some really good news that the the Auditors are finished with the financials as of today so we'll be scheduling our meetings for the budget and they're about a month early so that's very good news that's great the uh with the department heads those meetings yes okay yeah we'll get in touch with you with dates and Lori will when she gets back next week fantastic thank you yeah yeah it's great to hear Adam anything nothing for the meeting uh just one quick one I'll have couple for close session but um and this we can have a more robust discussion when we go back in conference but I did send out we did receive uh 10 responses to the open space RFP um a lot of good qualified firms in there were at the stage uh where we now narrow it down to three to bring in for interviews uh so as I mentioned the memo I did want to discuss with the council uh potentially some participation by can't obviously be more than two council members uh participating in that process but uh that that covers the stman potential stman 2 lari and Orchard Hill okay thank you Barry yeah that's great uh Russ uh nothing tonight thank you mayor okay great and Jared uh thank you mayor nothing tonight and I don't have anything for closed you don't okay did Mr Le did you have something for closed uh affordable housing uh attorney client privilege contract negotiation what property uh there's a number of properties that are involved um in terms of uh the potential on Hobart Gap and North Livingston Avenue okay good jar that was it that's all matter nothing great thanks Carol nothing for me mayor thank you all right uh Kon sure a couple of things I think um we are I'm looking forward to have uh I think part of the community is celebrating Ramadan so I just want to wish them uh Happy Ramadan and we are having Crest and Moon Lighting uh middle of week upcoming and also next week and happy St Patrick's Day a couple of our folks did participate in West Orange in the parade and those was all green already so that's looking forward to that um one other note um I would like to make is the lot of news about the Cinderella production I know it's a school thing but it's very exciting I'm looking look forward to seeing that and I hope uh uh our residents take notice of that uh and bu to the open space I'm really looking forward to have some biking trails and walking trails and all of that being a biker I can't wait for the weather to open up and start biking so that's all great thanks again um Michael thank you mayor I too want to wish uh those in our community who celebrate a blessed Ramadan um I also want to mention that Livingston Unico has their annual um person of the year and this year um is Rudy Fernandez our former mayor uh is the Honore and he'll be honored on Sunday uh April 21st at Handover Manor and if you're interest interested uh contact the Livingston Unico for further information I also want to congratulate uh police officer Joe winck uh on his recent retirement and thank him for uh all of his Services uh through the many years and I do want to uh finally uh congratulate our grants consultant and our fire department uh we've received a an American Rescue plan Grant uh uh just recently and uh excited about that so thank you mayor thank you Michael um Sean thank you mayor uh just a couple things for me um uh there is a I think it's either the second third event uh by the woen family they're they're doing a baseball bat demo day uh which is going to be uh March 16th this is uh this Saturday starting at 3:00 and essentially Rawlings is going to come in uh they may have some high-tech uh batting uh equipment and um they're going to put uh they're going to put these bats in the hands of kids who are looking to test out the latest equipment I know there's going to be some donations by the companies to uh to the little league and um uh if you have old equipment um in your house that you want to donate uh it's also being used as a fundraiser to uh raise uh to raise equipment funds uh for uh kids who are less privileged uh so that is going to be March 16th at 3:00 over at Congressional uh field and I I also want to say thanks to Pat poo who's been working with the Wallen family to help put this event on it should be great lots of kids there lots of uh lots of uh cool things to do um so that's that and then the second thing I want to talk about is I've had a number of people reach out uh about um doing another pick it up Livingston uh trash cleanup uh this year there's a lot of debris all over the all over the town uh because of all the wind and rain that we've had um and uh if you are interested in participating and pick it up Livingston this year uh we don't have a date for alized yet uh we're thinking about what date we're going to do it but it should be in the next couple of months uh please reach out and we can make sure that uh we uh use your helpful hands thank you thank you Deputy Mayor thank you very much just following up on what a few other people have mentioned earlier uh wishing everybody a very blessed Ramadan a very happy St Patrick's Day and of course my other favorite sport uh my favorite sport is congratulating the US Women's National Soccer Team who won one- nothing against Brazil Brazil uh yesterday in the first Copa tournament ever played so congratulations to the US Women's all right cool um real quick just a few things that were mentioned before uh blessed Ramadan and uh Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone uh Barry thanks for the open space uh rfps that's great news and great news on the timeline for the budget uh few other things uh I want to thank um the Board of Ed and all the teachers a few of us had a chance to uh participate in read Across America day uh always great uh that the schools invite us in uh to read to the kids um Colin School Bernett Hill a few others of course uh we also you and I had a chance to speak uh to the Democratic Club at the Livingston high school that was a lot of fun so we spent uh some time with the kids this week so that was that was great uh uh councilman coin had mentioned thank you so much for all the people St stepping up we appointed four uh four more people tonight to volunteer organizations in town and the list is terrific and thank you so much for everyone we've appointed uh probably a few different times this year already so thank you everyone for keep continuing to step up uh councilman Vieira congratulation uh congratulated Joe Winnick uh I'll join on that as well and uh let's see I think that's I think that's that's it okay can I add just one more thing to what you said not only did we speak to the uh young Democratic Club at Livingston high school but we did not know until it was brought out that the head of the young Republican uh party was there as well in the audience and it was great to have both sides B bipartisan meeting it was great to see both sides uh and it's great to see the participation of the high school uh students uh in U both sides of the democratic uh process so thank you it was a terrific discussion too yeah always is nice going to the high school um anything else no all right we're so we're going to go back into conference uh do we no formal no further formal action taken except for the closed session resolution which will be passed and may be subject to Amendment based on what happens in conference corre thank you going back a minut